Giants hand Braves third straight loss

Sunday

May 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 13, 2013 at 12:44 AM

By JANIE McCAULEYThe Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Fredi Gonzalez left the Atlanta Braves for two games following a series-opening victory at San Francisco to attend his daughter's college graduation in Georgia.He returned from the whirlwind, cross-country trek in time for the series finale Sunday to witness yet another lopsided loss against the reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants.Pablo Sandoval, Marco Scutaro and Brandon Belt each hit solo home runs against Braves starter Kris Medlen, who was outpitched by Tim Lincecum in a 5-1 defeat Sunday.Atlanta lost its third straight since taking the opener Thursday night, outscored 23-4 over the final three games.“We haven't been real fun to watch right now,” Gonzalez said. “What did we score, four runs, the past couple games? They have a good club and any time we made a mistake they took advantage. We didn't get much of anything going until the end when we scored a run.”Medlen (1-5) lost his fourth straight decision and saw his winless stretch reach six outings since his lone victory his first time out this year, April 4 against the Phillies.The right-hander allowed five runs, three earned, walked a season-high five and struck out one in 5 1/3 innings. After making progress in his last start, a solid start but no-decision at Cincinnati, Medlen never found his groove.“I picked a bad day to have a bad day, especially the way Lincecum threw today,” he said. “Everything I threw felt flat. I'm just glad they were all solo home runs. It very well could have been nine runs. I'm having trouble repeating myself. My stuff was the exact opposite of the stuff I had in Cincinnati in my last start.”The Braves continue their 10-game trip at Arizona, where left fielder Justin Upton will face his former Diamondbacks teammates for the first time after playing the first six years of his career in the desert.Lincecum (3-2) struck out seven in seven scoreless innings to end a three-start winless stretch in which he went 0-2. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner also stopped a four-start skid against Atlanta, beating the Braves for the first time since April 11, 2010.“I'll take it,” Lincecum said. “But I'm not jumping up in the air right now. ... I'm happy about it, but it's still a work in progress. I'm still working to get better.”Belt hit a solo homer in the second, Sandoval connected in the third and Scutaro went deep leading off the fifth. Gregor Blanco had an RBI double.Brandon Crawford added an RBI single in the fourth for the Giants, who concluded a 7-3 homestand. San Francisco won a home series against the NL East for the first time since April last year.Sandoval's two-out drive in the third cleared the elevated right-field arcade and found the water, setting off a kayaking commotion to retrieve the souvenir ball.“My wife asked me to hit a home run into the water for her for Mother's Day,” Medlen joked. “I must have misunderstood her, and gave up a home run that went into the water.”

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